Advanced technology has contributed to tremendous growth in production since the middle of the 20th century, while farmers have been able to reduce inputs, including labor, chemicals, and energy. The agricultural and food industry accounts for 13 percent of Washington State’s economy. Biotech, “flying tractors”, designer orchards, and robots have changed everything on the farm, from planting to harvest to packing house.

Biological Systems Engineering is among the recipients from the Commercialization Gap Fund (CGF) at Washington State University. Abhisesh Silwal is a PhD student advised by Dr. Manoj Karkee. [read full article in WSU news]

RICHLAND, Wash. – Researchers at Washington State University Tri-Cities have been awarded a National Science Foundation I-Corps grant to explore the market potential of their biojet fuel research.

The team has successfully demonstrated a new, water-based process for deconstructing and recovering lignin from biomass and converting it into jet fuel-range hydrocarbons. These could be certified as jet fuel in the future.

Bin Yang, WSU Tri-Cities associate professor of biological systems engineering and principal investigator for the grant, holds a patent on the process.

Wednesday, November 9th, the inaugural SciTech Northwest event was held in Seattle. This was the region’s first science and technology expo highlighting the latest innovations and collaborations in cyber/data analytics, clean energy, and biotechnology from three premier Washington research institutions. Twenty one groups and five speakers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, University of Washington, and Washington State University showcased their cutting-edge technologies. The featured speaker was Matt McIlwain, Managing Director, Madrona Venture Group.

Dr. Stephanie Pearl, Science Communicator at the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, highlights a number of food safety measures and how these are integral in an ever-changing climate. [full article…page 53]

Don McMoran, director of WSU Skagit County Extension, and Troy Peters, associate professor with BSE at the WSU Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Prosser, are helping growers statewide use every drop of irrigation water to the fullest.

Using a $455,000 grant from the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, their Water Irrigation System Efficiency, or WISE, project educates farmers and gives them smart tools to help the environment and their bottom line.

Irrigation uses 80 percent of the water in the Pacific Northwest, and center pivots irrigate over half of watered acreage. For the past three years, R. Troy Peters, associate professor and Extension irrigation specialist at BSE WSU Prosser, have been the primary investigator of Low Elevation Spray Application (LESA) technology for center-pivot irrigation.

The project is funded by Bonneville Power Administration, with the University of Idaho as a subcontractor. It was featured in a front-page article in the Capital Press.

WSU Regents Professor Juming Tang is well-versed in moving discoveries developed in the lab to the marketplace. Recently, the global research journal International Innovation featured the technologies he developed through years of basic research that could revolutionize pre-packaged food. » More ...

RICHLAND, Wash. – A doctoral student at Washington State University Tri-Cities is one of 15 worldwide, and the only U.S. student, selected to participate in a recent week-long school in Germany about developing safe, reliable chemicals in a sustainable way.

“One of the biggest challenges for sustainability sciences is to find solutions that do not threaten economic growth, the environment, and public welfare,” said Lei Zhu, who studies biological systems engineering at WSU Tri-Cities. “In particular, developing countries are seemingly faced with the dilemma of economic growth versus sustainability. Sustainability Sciences is all about coming up with ways out of dilemmas.”